Douglas Greene often gets the same response from first-time visitors to Hixson Metal Finishing in Newport Beach, California.
Douglas Greene“New customers are usually quite surprised to find a chemical processing facility that is located less than a mile away from the beach,” says Greene, the president of Hixson Metal Finishing, which was founded in 1958.
The company started as a niche commercial metal finishing processor catering to the local boating community for decorative chrome plating, but over the decades, Hixson rapidly gained a reputation for providing the highest quality plating capable of withstanding tough ocean environments.
Example of ‘Green Metal Finishing
With their location in one of the top vacation destinations in the country — known for its beautiful beaches, excellent surfing conditions, and gorgeous year-round weather — the Hixson team has worked diligently to stay ahead of Government and Environmental Regulations.
“We are a staple of ‘Green Metal Finishing,’” says Bruce Greene, Hixson’s Environmental Health and Safety Manager.
Hixson is heavily involved in the aerospace, defense, commercial aircraft, space, and automotive industries. Their more than 80 in-house processes include all types of anodizing (I, II, and III), spray coatings, vacuum cadmium, plating, and non-destructive testing.
Hixson is a robust operation, with over 120 employees spread across three shifts. During spurts of booming business in 2019 before the pandemic hit, Hixson would sometimes coat up to 2 million parts per month.
Growth With Several New Anodizing Lines
Douglas Greene says as part of their green initiatives, Hixson has added several new anodizing lines, made general plate, precious metals, and paint department upgrades, and added a new auto blast system, recipe-driven rectifiers, and additional environmental sound deadening systems.
“Technological process improvements are just as critical as expanding our process capabilities,” he says.
Hixson CEO DJ Young says other current technological process improvements are being developed and implemented that improve quality, delivery, and communication resulting in an overall enhanced customer experience.
“Our newly developed customer portal, for example, is in the beta test phase,” Young says. “The upgraded customer portal allows customers to track order progress and view order completion dates.”
The new customer portal is just one module within an entire system that is being developed by a private team of software engineers. Young says a new system is being designed and developed, with error-proofing methodologies, to manage all our key processes such as receiving, job planning, customer approvals, specification compliance, production scheduling, and shipping.
Word-of-Mouth, Great Quality, and Performance
Kara Bjorkman, Hixson’s Operations Manager and Quality Director says factory cleanliness, upgraded equipment, and great employee culture and appearance lead to extremely positive word-of-mouth advertising that routinely brings them new customers.
“Word-of-mouth, great quality, and performance sell itself,” she says. “Building active and communicative relationships with our customer base is important, and we are listening to our customer’s wants and needs.”
Douglas Greene says retaining customers after attaining them is just as important in their overall business plan.
“We do what we tell our customers we are going to do, and that’s all about accountability,” he says. “We have effective and accurate communication, competitive pricing, and near-perfect, repeatable quality.”
The Hixson management team is rounded out by Production Manager Greg Gannon, Accounting Manager Tom Riha, and Business Development Manager Eric Wells, who has led the company’s aggressive digital marketing efforts that help introduce them to prospective customers.
Agile Management Team
Young says the management team is very agile, and Hixson has an industry-leading customer service department that is quick to solve any issues that may come up, which luckily, with their AS9100, Nadcap, and FAA Cert approvals, are infrequent.
“We have tech-savvy business software and equipment, a very transparent quality team, and a truly accountable production team,” Young says.
Hixson works closely with its top suppliers, which include Miles Chemical, Afco Shot Peen, Technical Screen Printing, Size Control, and Atlas Testing.
Douglas Greene has been president of Hixson since 2000 when he was tapped to turn around a company that had been declining for several years due to both internal and external changes that the former management couldn’t keep up with.
Greene instituted new policies and procedures and began seeing a gradual increase in profitability and improved performance. Hixson also joined the Supplier Excellence Alliance (SEA), an aerospace and defense non-profit group founded by prime and Tier-One companies and led by sub-tier suppliers who are committed to accelerating supply chain performance. They saw measurable results from their active involvement with that group, and eventually, Greene became chairman of the supplier advisory board.
Hixson’s Journey into Lean Manufacturing
Thunderbirds pass over the HMF shop in Newport Beach, CAGreene also began Hixson’s journey into lean manufacturing that focused on leadership and culture by streamlining and formalizing priorities through a series of collective strategic planning sessions.
“Continual growth is a mindset of the Hixson Leadership Team,” he says. “In addition to developing the leaders of tomorrow, the Hixson Leadership Team has plans to expand process capabilities over the next six to 18 months.”
A zinc-nickel plating line is at the top of the process integration list. Hixson is currently evaluating the industry needs for ion-vapor deposition (IVD) aluminum coating and high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) coatings.
“There is a high level of confidence that Hixson will continue to grow, adapt to the industry needs, and improve customer satisfaction due to the actions we are taking today,” Greene says.
Helping Mission Critical Projects Succeed
There have been numerous best days at Hixson, but the one that stands out to Greene and his team was back in 2011. The space shuttle Atlantis was set to be launched within a couple of months but was grounded due to the failure of electrical resistance testing on certain critical wing areas that require a highly specialized bonding process.
“Apparently, they were attempting to get a passing result for weeks but were unable to,” Greene says. “Their mission-critical deadline was quickly approaching, and they were out of time.”
Hixson has been the sole source in the world for this process for years and is considered an expert in the field. Boeing approached them and asked if they could teach NASA staff how to properly prepare, apply, and test on the bird components.
“Within a couple of weeks, we were able to demonstrate proper application and testing techniques, as well as assist in the updating of documentation for NASA moving forward,” Greene says. “With their new techniques and skills, their technicians were able to repair numerous failed areas and get passing results quickly so the Atlantis launch could resume as scheduled.”
Atlantis blasted off on July 8, 2011, and had a successful mission to the international space station due to our involvement.
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